Does "life Begin at 60"

[meercat]

As the saying goes "life begins at 60"

Since turning 64 recently iv been wondering.. am i different since i hit 60...

Has your life changed since then?

Someone said the other day.."try to get to know yourself.. find out what you want to get out of life?"

Statistically iv got 29 years to find myself.. my dad's 93..

When we hit 60 where do we go..what do we do?

meercat xx

[Hanna3]

Bette Davis said getting old is not for sissies - and she was right, getting older with aches and pains isn't always easy. However my mother died at age 56, and was so sad she would never live to see her grandchildren - getting older is a privilege in a way, dying young is terrible.

I've just taken up learning to play acoustic guitar in my early 60s! I'm loving it!

I don't have to worry all the time about what I look like, I don't much care about what people think of me... I just wish the younger me had known some of the things I know now - I'd have given myself some good advice.

Plus, my little dog doesn't worry about my age - he's just loving and he shows me how to take joy in the simple things of life, like a walk on a lovely day.. playing with a ball.

I knew a lady in her 70s who was studying for a Ph.D at university - she'd never had the opportunity to study at university when she was younger. I thought she was terrific!

[ecomama]

Elizabeth CP I love the picture you painted of your grandchildren getting all muddy on tyres THEN going home for the parents to clean up.

WHAT FUN!!!

That's "play" at its finest lol.

Getting all muddy and dirty is great fun.

Elizabeth you certainly have the most wonderful adventurous spirit and life too!
It's so lovely to read about your escapades and adventures!

Your grandchildren are a chip off the ole block there lol, that's AWESOME!

xxxxEM

[ecomama]

Moon, my cousin taught me a comeback for anyone telling me what I SHOULD do.... (using the word "could" is a much gentler offer..)

That's to say "Are you shoulding on me?" lol. When you say that fast it sounds like another word.

But it feels exactly like that other word!

Sometimes ppl have said Oh no that sounds like sh___ting!
And I say yes, that's exactly what it feels like too.

Now whenever my friends say "should" to me, I quickly say "could"... and they laugh because they remember... in rare moments there might be something in a suggestion but usually no.

Usually I've already thought about the situation from a million perspectives knowing the situation best myself... so no.

For MUCH ruder ppl who I've not shared nor asked for their opinion.... eg demon exH... I've said "You simply don't have the credibility to say that".... credibility is a HUGE thing to me.

If someone has survived through immense hardship I revere that person.
I DO listen to those ppl.

Just as I listen to ppl here who KNOW. They know hardship, heartbreak, awful abuse and are survivors. They know MI.
Surviving through all this, whether you see it yourself or not, takes wisdom.

This is worth sharing.

Love to you all
EM

[Moonstruck]

I agree with you totally about the word "should" ecomama.

I always substitute "could".....I think I first realised how negative the "s" word was when reading the old Louise Hay book decades ago...You Can Heal Your Life....she points it out on one of her relaxation CDs also.......Nope, never use "should".....wish others wouldn't either........

[quirkywords]

EM and Moon

I try to remove the followings words from my vocabulary.

should, must, failure, hopeless, stupid, why don’t you, have you ever thought of.?

i have tried all my life not to offer advice.

As I get older my family free to give me loads of suggestions and should.

[Elizabeth CP]

have you ever thought of. are just suggestions not commands. As a child we wrote a long list for Christmas & birthday presents. The longer the better because then we had no idea what we would get. The list was suggestions ie things we thought would be nice. Our parents would usually pick one or 2 things to buy for us from the list but not always. We always appreciated whatever we got. When someone makes a suggestion thank them & then decide for yourself if it works for you.

Being older means choosing what is right for me not what is expected by others. My mother was in a wheelchair by her mid 50s but still chose to do things she wanted. When my dad died she ,oved in with us so I could care for her then after selling her house paid for my sister to visit with her family from USA because she wanted to spend some time seeing all her children & grandchildren enjoying time together. We all had fun but more importantly mum enjoyed being part of the fun.

Obviously I'm not saying we need to do the same but we can choose what matters to us rather than what others think we should do.

[quirkywords]

Thought i would resume this thread. I have had another birthday and while age to me is a state of mind I do wonder if my life begins now what have I been doing for past 60 plus years!!

I thought I was living silly me. I assume it can only get better and last years was a mere hiccup!!

What do others think are the best years yet to come or have they gone?

[Moonstruck]

Hi Quirky.....my honest answer to this would have to be "sorry, but No". If only our ageing over

Hi Quirky....my honest answer to this question would have to be "sorry, but No"...if only our bodies could keep up with our minds (which have figured a helluva lots of things out by now) it may be different, but the aches, pains, joint weakness etc are not going to get better, they will only become even more challenging with each year past 60.

So if you have reached your 60s and enjoying life, then make the very most of it...I don't believe our human race was meant from the beginning, to live this long, with medical advancements we live a lot longer than our ancestors, some of us feeling no different "inside" than when we were in our 30s....however....our bodies do not, refusing to allow us to do painlessly the many activities and movements we did so effortlessly all our lives...with each advancing year, this is not going to get better.....only worse.

Sorry but that's what I see all around me...and am now experiencing for myself...it's quite horrible.....so much I want to do...but my body hurts when I attempt it.

Love Moon S

[Hanna3]

Hi Moon!

Interesting thread! As someone in my early 60s this year has been a bad one for things going wrong with my health... I think the main thing we can all do is try to keep as active as possible despite the aches and pains.. walking, swimming, gardening... anything that keeps the body moving. I have friends who have given up and just stay sitting at home and it's fatal - you put on weight, lose muscle mass which means you can't walk well so then you have falls.. it's a downward spiral.

I think if we try to keep our minds active and our bodies as well as possible - and bear the aches and pains with a laugh to others at least.. yes it's challenging I agree - I'm sitting here with a slipped lumbar disc and the pain is not funny... but I try my best not to show that to others.. I do complain here on BB -

There's no easy way out of this happening is there? I'd love to know if others have any ideas... also it helps to do things that take your mind off it... so I'm doing music..

I hope this thread keeps going it's good for those of us who are older.

[quirkywords]

Hello Hanna, Moon and everyone

I was never very agile, fit or good at sports nor was ever very attractive so maybe it is easy for me to age as my body has never performed that well or I have never looked that great. I am being honest not humble.

I think if I had been a gymnast or a runner or could play any ball game and the notice I am slower and ache more when doing about a fraction of what i could do a decade or two ago, I may be frustrated.

I have alwyas walked but now I get tired quicker when I walk a bit slower and less distance.

The worst thing for me is not the aches it is the memory. I used to have a reliable memory I was the go to person for family history, birthdays, facts but now I start a sentence sometimes and have forgotten what i wanted to say. I forget where i put things and names of famous people and friends.

Now I am looking for the wisdom that comes with age to kick in, so far it has not!!

You know you are getting older when you do the warm up exercises for a 15 min online session and you are exhausted and aching before the real exercises start!!